The present disclosure relates to query processing. In particular, it relates to identifying search query suggestions.
Information retrieval systems, such as Internet search engines, are responsive to a user's query to retrieve information about accessible resources such as Web pages, images, text documents and multimedia content. A search engine may use a variety of statistical measures to determine the relevance of the resources to the user's query.
For a variety of reasons, a user may have difficulty formulating a query that accurately represents the user's information need. For example, a user unfamiliar with the space of information about a particular topic may submit an initial query as a starting point for exploring the topic. However, this initial query may be ambiguous, too broad or too specific to yield high quality search results. In addition, a user unfamiliar with the language of the resources being searched may also use unconventional or even incorrect query terms.
In such a case, the user may have to enter a number of different queries about the same topic before reaching resources that are of interest to the user. The user's queries may include variations in the specificity or breadth of the query terms, variations in the number of terms, and variations in the order of the terms. Refining the search can be a time-consuming experience for the user.